New Earth

by Ben Bova

  No one laughed.

  “Seriously,” he continued, “we seem to have a difference of opinion about what our course of action should be.”

  Everyone turned to Meek, who was bringing a forkful of scrambled faux eggs to his mouth. He froze for an instant, put the fork down, and looked squarely at Jordan.

  “I think we’re in over our heads here, and we should leave immediately and head back to Earth.”

  “But we’ve made the greatest discovery in the history of the human race,” Jordan said. “Should we run away from it?”

  “As fast as we can,” said Meek.

  “But why? What are you afraid of?”

  Meek glanced at Aditi, who was seated at Jordan’s side. He pushed his chair back and got to his feet. “What I have to say may offend you, Aditi. But I’ve got to say it.”

  “Please go ahead,” Aditi replied. “Speak your mind.”

  “Very well. This planet shouldn’t be here. These people shouldn’t be here. Everything we’ve learned about Adri and his people leads to colossal contradictions.”

  “Such as?”

  “Adri’s DNA is identical to ours,” said Longyear. “That’s not possible, not natural.”

  De Falla spoke up. “The planet’s geological structure is much younger than it should be.”

  Meek resumed, “They have technology that’s far superior to ours.”

  “But they don’t have spacecraft, not even satellites,” Hazzard added.

  “Now wait,” said Jordan. “Adri and his people have treated us quite well. They’ve welcomed us—”

  “Like the spider to the fly,” Tanya Verishkova muttered.

  “He’s not being honest with us,” Meek went on. “He isn’t telling us the truth.”

  Turning to Aditi, Jordan asked, “Is Adri being honest with us?”

  Aditi said in a clear, calm voice, “Everything Adri has said to you has been the truth. He has never lied to you.”

  “Ah, you see?” Meek said, waggling a finger at her. “They speak like lawyers.”

  “What do you want to know?” Aditi asked.

  “Why are you here? Why did you lure us to you?”

  She looked genuinely perplexed. “We have lived here all our lives, just as you have lived on Earth. And we didn’t lure you, you came here to us.”

  Longyear said, “Our ship’s sensors couldn’t detect your city.”

  “Because of its energy shield.”

  “But you sent out a laser beacon to attract us.”

  “We observed your ship in orbit, just as we observed the earlier ships that had no people aboard them.”

  “How did you know the earlier ships were uncrewed?” Meek demanded.

  She shrugged. “No one came down to the ground, as you did.”

  “Why’d you shine that laser beacon?” Thornberry asked.

  “To attract your attention.”

  “Aha!” Meek snapped.

  Jordan said, “Harmon, turn the situation around. If an alien spaceship arrived in orbit around Earth, what would your reaction be?”

  “Blow it out of the sky,” Thornberry said, without an instant’s hesitation.

  “Be serious.”

  “Well…” Meek hesitated, then answered, “I suppose I’d want to meet whoever was aboard it.”

  “And ascertain if they were dangerous or not,” de Falla said.

  “And examine them medically,” Yamaguchi added.

  Longyear asked, “But what would be the chances that they were human? Down to their DNA?”

  “We don’t know,” Jordan said. “This is our first experience with alien life.” Before anyone could reply, he added, “Intelligent alien life.”

  “What about those whales in Jupiter’s ocean?” Verishkova asked. “The leviathans?”

  “They’re not intelligent,” said Longyear.

  “Aren’t they? I’ve read papers that say they are.”

  “Whether they are or not,” Jordan said, “Adri and the people here on New Earth are fully intelligent.”

  Meek insisted, “I say we go back to Earth and report what we’ve found.”

  “And leave all these questions unanswered?” Jordan challenged. “The biggest discovery in human history, and you want to run away from it?”

  Meek slowly sank back onto his chair. “I think they’re dangerous,” he grumbled. “I can’t help feeling that we’re in danger here.”

  “Have they done anything harmful to us?” Jordan asked. “Have they been anything but helpful, generous?”

  “They’re not telling us the whole truth about themselves. They know a lot more than they’re telling us.”

  “Then we should dig into the matter and learn more about them,” Jordan said.

  A stubborn silence filled the tent.

  “We’re here to discover, to learn,” Jordan pleaded. “You’re all scientists and engineers. You’ve dedicated your lives to exploring, to uncovering new knowledge. Why run away from the opportunity of a lifetime?”

  “To save our lives,” Meek answered.

  Jordan looked around the table. “How many of you feel we’re in real danger here?”

  Meek’s hand shot up. After a moment’s hesitation, Longyear, Wanamaker, and de Falla raised theirs also. Hazzard looked uncertain, uncomfortable, but his hands remained in his lap.

  Suppressing a satisfied smile, Jordan said, “The nays have it. We’re staying.”

  Meek shook his head. “This is a mistake, I tell you. A fatal mistake.”

  “The mistake, Harmon,” said Jordan, with some steam behind it, “would be to pull up stakes. Instead of running away, we’ve got to learn all we can about this world and its people. We have a whole new world to explore! Let’s get on with it!”

  But even as he spoke so positively, Jordan wondered how much he was being influenced by Aditi, sitting there and beaming prettily at him.

  TRANSITION

  Jordan looked at his team, their faces all turned toward him. You’re their leader, he reminded himself. Show some leadership.

  “Very well,” he told them, “I’m going back to the city. I’ll talk to Adri and try to get some of our questions answered. Who wants to come with me?”

  Not a hand went up.

  “Mitch, don’t you want to talk to their engineers? Find out how these energy shield generators work?”

  “I do,” said Thornberry, “but … maybe later. Not just now.”

  Hazzard said, “I’d better get back to the ship, check out all the systems.”

  “Make certain the propulsion engines are working,” Meek muttered.

  Turning to his brother, Jordan asked, “Bran, you want to come to the city, don’t you?”

  “When Elyse is finished with their astronomers,” Brandon replied, looking uneasy. “Right now she wouldn’t have time for me.” Before Jordan could object, he added, “Besides, I’ve got plenty to do here.”

  Jordan shook his head. “I see. All right, then, I’ll go alone and have a talk with Adri.”

  “He’ll tell you anything you want to know,” said Aditi. “Or he’ll put you in contact with specialists who have the information you want.”

  Nodding, Jordan said, “Good. Then my task will be to set up a series of conferences for each of you with specialists in your different fields.”

  “That’ll be grand,” Thornberry said, without enthusiasm.

  “Fine by me,” said Brandon.

  Meek said nothing.

  * * *

  Walking back toward the city with Aditi, Jordan couldn’t keep his mind on Meek and the growing fears that all the others seemed to have. His mind refused to dwell on it. Instead, he marveled that the forest seemed more alive than he’d ever found it before. Birds twittered above, little animals scampered across the ground, butterflies fluttered among the colorful flowers.

  I’ve never noticed all this before, he said to himself. I never saw how beautiful and vibrant it all is.

  And then he understood. It’
s because I’m with Aditi. She makes the world wonderful. She makes me alive again.

  He recognized that he had at last let go of the past. Not forgotten it. Not dismissed it. But he had stopped clinging to it, stopped going over it, again and again, endlessly. He had let go. He had opened his heart to life again.

  A miracle has occurred, he told himself. This beautiful, intelligent, warm, and loving woman truly cares for me.

  It wasn’t that he forgot Miriam. For a moment he felt almost guilty about Aditi. But he finally understood that love is not finite, not a zero-sum game. The love you feel for one person does not lessen the love you feel for someone else. Love can expand to encompass the whole world. A man can fall in love all over again, marveling at his good fortune, and this doesn’t diminish his love for the woman he had lost.

  Eight point six light-years, he kept telling himself. I had to travel eight point six light-years to find her. I’m not going to let her go.

  * * *

  Once they reached the city, Jordan went through the day almost in a trance. He and Aditi met with Adri, who promised to help the team members meet specialists in their fields. He had dinner with Adri and Aditi.

  Then he walked Aditi to his suite, grateful that Brandon had stayed at the camp.

  As he ushered her into the sitting room, he stammered, “Ah … would you care for something? Is it possible to get an after-dinner drink?”

  Aditi stepped close enough to brush against him. “We don’t need an alcoholic beverage, do we?”

  He felt flustered, almost embarrassed. “Sometimes it helps … that is…”

  “Jordan, darling,” Aditi said, twining her arms about his neck, “I love you. You love me, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  “Then let’s go to bed.”

  He gulped, but managed to say, “By all means!”

  RACING TOWARD EXTINCTION

  The days seemed to fly by. Jordan split his time between the base camp and the city.

  Activities at the camp settled into a busy, productive routine. Brandon and de Falla, accompanied by two robots, took off on a geological expedition, flying halfway across the planet in a rocketplane piloted remotely by Hazzard, who had returned to the orbiting Gaia.

  “I might as well go out in the field,” Brandon groused. “Elyse has practically taken up residence at the observatory. She spends more time talking with Zadar than me.”

  Jordan suppressed a grin. He said, “It’s a good thing Demetrios is up on the ship. Otherwise, I think you might get jealous of her fellow astronomer.”

  Brandon’s answer was a sour grimace.

  Jordan made a point of having lunch with Elyse in the city the next day.

  “Bran misses you terribly,” he told her.

  “I miss him, too,” she said. “But no one’s seen a white dwarf this close! We’re breaking new ground here.”

  “What about this planetary energy shield?” Jordan asked her. “Have you discussed that with the observatory’s astronomers?”

  Elyse frowned slightly, as if annoyed by a question from a layman, team leader or not. “I’ll get to that, Jordan. But we’ve got all these observations of the Pup to make!”

  Jordan nodded. She’s deeply into her studies and she doesn’t want to be sidetracked, he knew. I wonder how much she misses Brandon, out in the woods halfway across the planet?

  “One day our Sun will become a white dwarf,” Elyse pointed out. “We’re looking at the future of our own star.”

  There’s no sidetracking her, Jordan realized.

  After several days of hesitation, Longyear and Yamaguchi accompanied Jordan into the city and began examining not only the people, but their beasts of burden and their pets. Yet they returned each night to the camp.

  The biologist grew more and more mistrustful. “It’s terrestrial DNA, all of it. Every species we’ve examined carries an almost exact duplicate of Earth-type DNA.”

  Yamaguchi seemed happy enough about it. She began to write a research paper titled, “Convergent Evolution: Earth and Sirius C.” Longyear grudgingly helped her with it.

  Jordan worried about Meek, who seemed to be lost in his fears, accomplishing nothing as the days wore on, staying in the camp and never setting foot in the city.

  Adri came to visit the camp, and Jordan showed him through the labs and workshops. When they came to the biology laboratory, Meek was sitting at the workbench on a stool, his heels hooked on one of its rungs, the knees of his long legs almost reaching his squared-off chin.

  “Hello, Harmon,” Jordan called. “We have a visitor.”

  Meek nodded warily.

  “Dr. Meek,” said Adri, smiling amicably. “How can I convince you that we are not dangerous to you?”

  Meek’s brow furrowed. At last he said, “You could answer my questions truthfully.”

  Adri nodded. “Of course.” Jordan saw his brow arch slyly as he added, “Would you like to test me with a lie detector?”

  Looking annoyed, Meek said, “I wish I had one.”

  “Perhaps you could construct one.”

  Hiding his amusement, Jordan said, “I’m sure that won’t be necessary. Will it, Harmon?”

  Meek didn’t answer.

  Without being invited, Adri pulled up one of the stools lining the workbench and sat next to Meek. “Ask me anything you wish, sir.”

  Jordan stood off to one side, scrutinizing the expression on Meek’s face. He saw fear, and sullen resentment. Yet something more, as well: there was human curiosity tucked in among his apprehensions.

  “Where do you come from?” Meek started.

  “Why, from here. This planet. New Earth.”

  “You were born here?”

  “I’ve lived here all my life.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Twelve.”

  Meek’s eyes went wide.

  Jordan chuckled and said, “Twelve New Earth years. Each orbit of this planet around Sirius takes thirty Earth years.”

  “Which means,” Meek said, “that you’re … three hundred and sixty years old?” His eyes went even wider.

  Adri smiled modestly. “Yes, your arithmetic is correct.”

  “Three hundred and sixty years old?” Meek yelped.

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Do your people regularly live such long lives?” Jordan asked.

  Adri nodded solemnly. “Yes. So can you. Your biological sciences are steadily increasing your life spans, are they not?”

  “Yes, but three hundred and sixty years,” Jordan marveled. “We haven’t reached that yet.”

  “We can help you,” said Adri. Then he added, “Although, with your enormous population, I wonder if extending your life spans would be a good thing.”

  Meek recovered from his surprise. “How old is your race?”

  “Our civilization goes back many millions of years.”

  “And you’ve existed on this one planet all that time?”

  Adri spread his hands. “My race has lived only on this planet. We have never lived elsewhere.”

  Jordan said, “What we find remarkable—unbelievable, almost—is that you’re so much like us. This entire planet is so Earthlike. It’s uncanny.”

  “Yes, I suppose it is.”

  “It’s more than uncanny,” Meek grumbled. “It’s unbelievable. To find a planet exactly like Earth, and intelligent beings exactly like humans—”

  “Not exactly,” Adri pointed out.

  “Down to your DNA,” said Meek.

  “Yes, biologically we are very similar,” Adri admitted. “But socially, culturally, we have significant differences.”

  “You control your numbers,” said Jordan.

  “We live in harmony with our environment,” Adri responded. “We are not xenophobic. We are not competitive, not aggressive. We have welcomed you to our world, while you are distinctly suspicious of us.” Before Meek could reply, Adri amended, “Perhaps I should say, you are instinctively suspicious of us.”
>
  Meek said, “You disapprove of our instincts?”

  Smiling gently, Adri replied, “It’s not a matter of my approval or disapproval. Your instincts served you well, long ages ago. But now you must outgrow them.”

  “Why? Because you say so?”

  “Because they are destroying you. You have devastated your planet with overpopulation, with environmental degradation, with famines and wars and hatreds. You are teetering on the brink of extinction, whether you realize it or not.”

  “You sound like one of those overzealous eco-activists,” Meek said.

  “Forgive me,” Adri immediately apologized. “I should not be telling you how to live your lives.”

  “Someone should,” said Jordan.

  “It’s just that…” Adri hesitated, seemingly gathering his thoughts. At last he said, with infinite sadness in his voice, “It’s just that to witness the destruction of an intelligent race is a terrible, terrible thing.”

  “Do you really feel that we’re so close to destroying ourselves?” Jordan asked.

  “Indeed,” said Adri, his aged face showing grave concern. “You are heading for extinction. Racing toward it, I’m afraid.”

  QUESTIONS

  Meek seemed thoroughly chastened as Adri sat on the stool beside him, his expression bleak. Jordan himself felt unutterably sad at the thought of the human race’s extinction.

  Rousing himself, Jordan said, “Well, we’re not dead yet. We can overcome our problems, if we want to.”

  “If you want to,” Adri agreed. “That’s the question. Can you alter your modes of behavior, your ways of thinking, soon enough and well enough to avert the catastrophe that’s facing you?”

  “We can try,” said Jordan.

  “We will help you all that we can, of course,” Adri said. “But your people will have to make some wrenching changes in their fundamental attitudes.”

  Meek said nothing. He seemed lost in thought.

  Adri got up from the stool. “I must return to the city now. Dr. Meek, I hope I have given you the information you sought.”

  Meek nodded wordlessly.

  Jordan said, “I’ll go with you to the edge of the camp, Adri.”

  “No need for that, friend Jordan. I can find my way.” He turned and headed for the lab’s door in his seemingly effortless gliding walk.